Booker T does not expect Oba Femi to hand the spot he has just taken to anybody, and thinks Brock Lesnar has earned the right to walk away from the business entirely.
Femi beat Lesnar inside Hell in a Cell in the main event of SummerSlam night one on August 1. Lesnar came back to the ring afterwards, raised Femi’s hand and told the crowd that Femi is the future and he is the past, then confirmed his retirement days later. WWE has since moved him to the alumni section of its website.
Speaking on The Hall of Fame, Booker T said he has been watching Femi closely since NXT and that the growth has been faster than most.
“He’s in a great position, and he’s handling it very, very well, man. He’s matured like so quickly in this business. I’m not talking about as a man, or anything like that, but as a performer, as a professional wrestler, coming from the program into NXT to now the main roster and being the guy, you can’t imagine how huge of a responsibility that really, really, truly is.”
He was clear about his own investment in it.
“For him, I’m watching him, and I’m watching his every movement, every time I see him too, you know we always dab it up, and I’ve always been like one of if not his biggest supporter, like down in NXT, always used to pump him up and tell him you know how good he is and how he’s doing everything right in the ring as well as out of the ring.”
“And right now he’s taking that brass ring, man, and he’s put it on. And I don’t expect for him to try to give it up anytime soon to anybody. That’s who I see Oba Femi.”
Booker T has been on NXT commentary throughout Femi’s run there. Femi won the North American Championship from Dragon Lee in January 2024 and held it into the following October, the longest single reign in the title’s history, before a 262-day run with the NXT Championship that ended against Ricky Saints at No Mercy.
On Lesnar, he had no argument with the decision to stop.
“For Brock Lesnar, if that’s the way he feels, Brock’s got enough money, investments, to walk away from this business. I get it. If I was him, I would do the same thing. Enjoy it, man. Enjoy it. He’s done everything. He’s done everything in the sport of professional wrestling as well as MMA, collegiate, everything.”
“He’s been sacrificing his body forever since he was a little bitty boy, and I’m a true believer in taking a step back and enjoying the fruits of the labor. Do it, man, because you deserve it more than anything. Your family deserve it.”
He also made a point about the shape of the career that is not the usual one. Most retrospectives treat Lesnar’s first WWE run as the promise and the second as the payoff. Booker T’s view is that the second was not supposed to be the better one.
“Both runs that he had, one was good, and then you would think he’d be on the downside, and that run turned out to be better. You get wow, man, this guy.”
Asked to pick a moment from the MMA career, he did not go to the title wins.
“The Carwin fight is the one that really, really put Brock in legendary status in the UFC, because Shane Carwin was so dominating at that point, even to the point where he had Brock Lesnar on the precipice, on the cusp of giving up, and Brock somehow through will and determination and just pure intestinal fortitude stuck it out and pulled that fight off. That might have been Brock Lesnar’s best fight in the UFC, as far as I’m concerned.”
Lesnar survived a first round against Carwin at UFC 116 in July 2010 and submitted him in the second to retain the heavyweight championship.
The finish at SummerSlam drew a physical reaction from Booker T watching at home. Femi hit Fall From Grace after kicking out of a tombstone onto the exposed wood beneath the ring, and Booker T said his first thought was for his own knees.
“I just started screaming. I was thinking about my knees as soon as he went down. I was like, oh my God, that’s gotta hurt.”
